Water Treatment Investigations

ASTM & NACE Corrosion Tests	Water Treatment Studies
Water Treatment Testing	Water Treatment Investigations
Metallurgical Evalaution	Determining Corrosion Rate
Scale and Deposit Control	Inhibitor Stduies
Immersion Corrosion Testing	Water Line Corrosion: Copper, Steel
Corrosion Investigations	Reactivation Pp/Ec Trend Studies
Boiler Corrosion Control and Failure Analysis	Materials & Coating Selection
Corrosion Rate Control	Cathodic Protection
Corrosion Immersion Testing	Corrosion Testing & Evaluation
Full Electrochemical Corrosion Testing	Accelerated Testing
Boiler Tube Failure Analysis	Special Corrosion Testing

Water is the lifeblood of industry. It provides process cooling, hot water or steam, fire protection and portable water for human health and well being.

Open systems evaporate cooling water and use a large amount of raw makeup water. These systems absorb gases from the atmosphere and allow bacteria to grow. Particulates are scrubbed from the air and can accumulate on heat transfer surfaced. This can result in corrosion, scale, deposit and biological problems to develop within the cooling water system. These problems can reduce cooling effciency, cause unscheduled shut-down, loss of production and expensive equipment repair.

Closed cooling water systems are not as susceptible to scale and deposit formation but are prone to both corrosion and biological problems. Some of the problems that can develop in are loss heating and cooling capacities of HVAC systems, reduction in engine and/or diesels efficiency and plugging of small orifice heat transfer tubing.

Boiler water systems provide steam for infinite number of task: heating, process usage, driving engines or turbines. The water chemistry must be controlled to prevent scale buildup on boiler tubes, and provide quality condensate return to the boiler water system.

Matco Associates, Inc., is an independent consulting engineering firm that can review your water treatment programs and assess in: bid evaluation; determining the best avaliable treatment for your system; monitoring techniques that are most appropriate: evaluate the causes of corrosive attack, scale, deposit and microbiological formation occuring in your system; technical audits; training; seminars on various aspects of water treatment.

At Matco, we specialize in conducting water treatment analysis, corrosion testing and failure analysis investigations for various water systems . This requires not only a laboratory that features state of the art equipment, but an extensively trained multidisciplinary professional staff as well. The Corrosion Testing and Water Treatment Laboratory, located in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , has been in existence since 1993 and is one of the premier corrosion testing and water managment in the North America.

Plant water systems can encompass pretreatment conditioning that involves the removal or reduction of undesirable characteristics of the water.  The major process includes clarification, filtration, hardness reduction, ion exchange, and membrane systems.  These waters become the source for: boiler water; makeup water for cooling water systems, both open recirculating and closed cooling waters; and potable water.  We are experienced in the chemical treatment philosophies and operational aspects of these water systems.

Technical Consulting Services:

• Technical audits

• Bid evaluation on water treatment chemicals

• Determination of the best available treatment chemistries for open and closed cooling water systems, boiler water chemistry, fire water protection systems, potable water, reverse osmosis, etc.

• Appropriate monitoring techniques and results interpretation

• Evaluation of causes of corrosive attack, scale and deposit formation occurring in the system, and recommendation of appropriate action

• Operator training

• Seminars on various aspects of water treatment

The above list is not all-inclusive.  Matco can provide additional services for specific projects in a variety of industries.

Laboratory and Analytical Support :

• Analysis of boiler, cooling and other plant process water samples

• Laboratory studies for treatment optimization

• Failure analysis

• Corrosion investigation

• Scale and deposit control

• Electrochemical studies

• Metallurgical examination

Corrosion Pit on Type 316 stainless steel due to chloride Contamination of water system 

The investigation of corrosion failures can be very complex, and usually requires multidisciplinary testing and analysis to determine the root cause of failure. The end determination must be able to be made with a high degree of certainty to ensure that proper replacement materials are selected and that the most effective corrosion control methods are used. Experience is surely the most important ingredient to look for when choosing a materials firm to handle your corrosion control and failure analysis needs.

Matco has distinguished itself by providing its clients professional unbiased advice and expertise in water management projects for industrial, institutional, commercial and municipal systems.

Specialists in Corrosion Engineering, Water Treatment & Failure Analysis

Experienced PE, PhD Scientists, NACE Certified in Corrosion, Coating, Design , Materials Selection & Cathodic Protection Specialists who will solve your corrosion problems at both initial design stages and in service. We have been providing corrosion engineering services for over 3000 clients.

• Corrosion Engineering and Water Treatment 
• Corrosion Evaluation, life expectancy determination and cathodic protection
• Corrosion mapping, detection of "Hot Spots",
• Explosions/Fire Investigation forensic engineering
• Electrochemical EIS , DC and AC Testing - Determination of corrosion protection criteria for non-ferrous alloys and stainless steels
• On-site Evaluation of tanks and corrosion mitigation by protective coatings and internal or external Cathodic Protection
• Corrosivity determination of water and determination of corrosion mitigation techniques
• On-site coating evaluation and selection of coatings for specific corrosive environments by EIS technique